The Question
by One step ahead
Summary: The one question that Lily Evans was not prepared for..


**DISCLAIMER: Yeah. I'm J.K. Rowling. Bite me, Lizzie. -sigh- Get over it. I'm not her, I never will be. Oh and I have nothing to do with Harry Potter.**

_**The Question.**_

He had never felt like this before.

This happy excitement welling up inside him, this new glow on his cheeks, this crazy way that he felt so complete.

The only time that he had come close to feeling like this was when he had won the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor. He thought then, that nothing could give him that kind of a high.

Twenty-five year old, James Potter would gladly acknowledge now, how wrong he had been.

He watched her auburn hair falling in waves down her back gently falling around her ears, framing a face which was teasing him silently. He watched her heated argument with a brunette. He saw her lips twist into a smile as she felt his gaze on her, never acknowledging him. That smile… Like she knew a secret she wouldn't let him in on.

He loved her. There was nothing to it. He just loved her. Not because he had to, not because that was what was expected of him, not because it would make someone else happy. He loved her, because she made him happy.

His heart winced at the thought of the last year. All the running. All the working. All the searches. All the endless conversations with people he didn't even like.

Soon, he would have to go back to that world. A world slowly filling with sorrow and hatred, two of his least favourite words.

But for now, he was living in the moment.

There was no crazy wizard trying to conquer the world. There were no hooded men killing people for pleasure.

In this moment, there was only the two of them.

And he liked it like that.

XxXxXxXx

She loved James.

It still didn't sound normal to her, but then like he had said, "What's so great about normal?"

She couldn't point out the exact moment she had fallen in love with him, but she knew it had happened sometime during their long talks about random topics, their silly bantering, and that intense way he looked at her.

Those looks. She had always been private but every time his gaze found her, she felt like an open notebook, carelessly being ruffled by the wind.

It still amazed her how much she liked it.

She thought about how much had changed since she had started talking to him. Discovering him, and unwittingly discovering herself. Discovering life.

She heard the file slap on his table and the heat of his stare divert. She smiled a little more and glanced in his direction. At the messy hair falling into his eyes, the lazy way his legs were crossed and his momentary absorption by his work

Her heart filled with an inexplicable joy at the sight of him just sitting there.  
No slimy brunettes trying to weasel out of jobs. No psychotic wizards declaring themselves Dark Lords.

In this moment there was only the two of them.

And she liked it like that.

XxXxXxXx

"Fleur de Lille" he whispered as her caught up with her hasty strides.

She smiled and quickened her pace. "Hello, captain."

"You should stop calling me that, you know, de Lille?"

"You should stop calling me Fleur de Lille, then."

"Nah. I like calling you that. You know you love it."

"Okay, captain, I won't shake you out of your pretty world of disillusionment."

"You know I can't beat you when it comes to verbal duels. Why do you try me so, de Lille?"

"You know you love it."

"I know this is a cue for a frustrated sigh, but…"

"You'll still insist on staring at me like a lost puppy?"

"I _am_ a lost puppy in your love my darling Lily flower!"

Lily sighed frustratedly.

"Round one to Potter. Cue, evil laugh."

Lily burst into laughter she rounded the polished stairwell.

"Fleur de Lille… I have a question. Two actually."

"Tell me, Captain."

James grabbed her hand bringing her to an abrupt halt.

She looked up at him, her eyes questioning.

"Do you know that I love you, Lily? More than anything that you could possibly imagine? And that I will spend the rest of my life convincing you of that if you don't believe me?"

Lily had broken many noses on account of similar words. But somehow this was different.

"… Yes."

James' shoulders heaved and a thankful expression crossed his face. Then again he tensed and took her hand.

"Would you allow me, Lily, to let me tell you that everyday? To prove to you how much I care for you?"

"J- J- James… What- what are you saying?"

The usually calm green eyes were shining, filled with nervousness, a word dissociated with Lily in her first year as an Auror.

"I'm asking you, Lily Evans," he said, as he brought out his other hand from behind his back to reveal a small jewellery box.

"I'm asking you, Lily Evans," he said again as he went down on one knee.

"Will you marry me?"

Lily looked into the hazel-brown eyes and the answer spelt itself out..

"Y-Y-Y-Yes."

The people who were present that day, would tell their stories later, of how a whooping shout had disrupted work that day and had caused nearly every auror there to run out into the corridor to find a wildly excited man with messy black hair, swinging around an equally delighted red head.

As he hugged her, he knew that this was the way that it was supposed to be and she knew there, in his arms, nothing bad could ever happen to her.

"James?"

"Lily?"

"You asked six questions."

XxXxXxXx

A/N: I've imagined the scenario a thousand times in my head. This was one of them…

Just something I had to do) Anyway… Tell me what you think! Tell me if it stinks! Ahh... enough bad poetry. Leave a review… Cheers!

P.S. I might follow it up with a sequel, "The Union."


End file.
